5 Fun Garden Activities

Now I’m on maternity leave, I’ve been trying to organise my days with the kids with lots of activities to keep them occupied. However, our car situation has been a bit of a pain. As a family with one car, I have to either drop my husband off at work (meaning getting two kids ready at 7am), he has to get the train (meaning he has to walk 20 minutes to the station and then gets to work an hour early) or he takes the car and I’m stuck at home with the kids all day. It was annoying at first, but we’ve found ways round it and have definitely had fun finding ways to entertain ourselves at home when Daddy is using the car! So here are our top 5 fun garden activities!

Obstacle Course

Alfie has got an insane amount of energy that some days I just don’t know what to do with him! I’ve recently found from taking him to his weekly Acitivitots classes that he loves jumping and being challenged, so I’ve started setting up a mini obstacle course in the garden for him to tackle. He loves it and even more so when his friends are round and they can challenge each other! This is one of Alfie favourite fun garden activities.

Camping

I’m pretty sure every child loves camping! Alfie loves it when we put his play tent up in the garden and we pretend that we are camping. We lie inside the tent, read stories, play board games and then have a picnic for lunch. We’ve not yet been brave enough to take the kids “proper” camping but it’s definitely something we want to do – I’ve even been checking out some bits on Garden & Camping to see what we’d need to prepare ourselves for when Alfie asks to do real camping!

Nature Hunt

Alfie does a lot of natural trails and related activities at nursery, so I try and recreate these at home when we can. We have a big garden, but there isn’t a lot of “stuff” like trees and flowers, so our nature hunts are pretty simple. I ask Alfie to collect some items from around the garden and then we put them on his tuff tray and talk about them. We discuss colours and textures and where each item comes from. We also have a magnifier which is great fun for seeing things close up!

Painting and Crafts

Using the garden for painting is a great idea as it minimises mess and also means we can do much larger projects! Quite often we’ll roll out a sheet of paper and let loose with the paints and glue and craft things. Our most recent make was a robot! Using the garden also means I can hose Alfie down to get the worse of the paint off, and I don’t stress about the mess!

Role Play games

Alfie is obsessed with being like Daddy, so it’s great when we can use the garden for him to “help” daddy or copy daddy whilst he’s doing his jobs. Mowing the lawn is a current favourite, but we also play at washing the car, doing the BBQ and building with his tools. It’s a great way for Alfie to spend time with daddy and I love watching their bond together.

The Face Behind The Blog

Hello, I'm Abi and I am the face behind the blog, Something About Baby. This is my space where I write all about being mum to Alfie, who was born in July 2015, and wife to Craig. Check out my About Me section to find out more.